The Government of Yukon provides update on October 11 on the Eagle gold mine

The Government of Yukon recognizes the ongoing seriousness of the heap leach failure that occurred at Victoria Gold’s Eagle gold mine on June 24 and continues to work to protect the environment as well as human, fish and animal health in the areas surrounding the mine site.

Prior to June 24, Eagle gold mine produced gold by dousing a heap of crushed ore with cyanide solution. When the failure occurred at the heap leach facility, it caused a landslide that moved about four million tonnes of material. About half of that material escaped the facility’s containment embankment and slid into Dublin Gulch.

This situation is catastrophic, in large part, because the main contaminant, cyanide, is extremely toxic. In this unfortunate situation, the Government of Yukon priorities are to ensure the health, safety and wellbeing of Yukoners and to protect the environment.

The Government of Yukon cannot solve this problem alone. Technical experts with the Government of Yukon and the First Nation of Nacho Nyak Dun continue to meet regularly to inform remediation work and monitor water, fish and animal health.

PricewaterhouseCoopers, the court-appointed receiver, is now in control of the mine site for the purpose of carrying out remediation efforts. The receiver is undertaking mitigation work and is responsible for implementing all directions issued by the Government of Yukon and federal regulators.

The Government of Yukon remains in communication with businesses and former employees who are owed money by Victoria Gold and are helping them recover some of these debts.

Ongoing actions

The joint Government of Yukon and First Nation of Nacho Nyak Dun fisheries monitoring program recently concluded summer work and has shifted efforts to a monitoring program that focuses on winter habitat availability and fish monitoring in 2025. Work is progressing on the safety berm that’s being built across Dublin Gulch to offer protection from a possible secondary slide of the heap. The berm access road has been completed and the construction of the berm proper is now underway. Eighteen groundwater monitoring wells have been installed, 14 of which are further below the slide area to monitor impacts from the slide.

In samples taken from these wells, the Government of Yukon is seeing high levels of cyanide and dissolved metals in the groundwater, not surprisingly at testing sites closest to the slide in and near Dublin Gulch. This information helps to understand the groundwater pathways and to inform mitigation strategies.

While the Government of Yukon is not currently seeing unsafe levels of cyanide in the downstream environment, on September 24 and 26, 2024, the mercury level exceeded the water quality objective at one monitoring station on Haggart Creek. The Government of Yukon is gathering more information to understand this data, its impacts to the environment and to determine if further actions are required to mitigate effects. The receiver’s water treatment contractor has been hard at work upgrading the water treatment plant and conducting tests to determine the best means to discharge water safely.

Creating contaminated water storage capacity on site remains a serious challenge. Two additional storage ponds have been constructed under the receivership, providing nearly 150,000 m³ of storage. Work is nearly complete on an additional 50,000 m³ of storage. Additional work is underway to continue to expand water storage on site.

On October 3, Service Canada issued an extension to former Victoria Gold employees who wish to apply for the Wage Earner Protection Program. Former employees now have until December 26 to apply to the federal government for compensation through the Yukon Employment Standards Office.